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Issue 39: From 21st to 25th August 2017
Message of the Director
Dear Colleagues and Partners,
This week I had the opportunity to participate in the Conference on Girls'
Education in Africa and Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE)
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in Lusaka, Zambia, from 23 to 24 August 2017. I was invited as co-sponsor of
the conference to give the keynote speech whose focus was on overcoming
the bottlenecks of gender equality through bringing back normalcy to gender
power relations. The event presented a great opportunity to reflect on the
work done to place girls' education issues in national, continental and
intercontinental education policies and laws, conventions and agreements and
find possible solutions to challenges that still hinder gender equality and
women's empowerment.
The event revolved around the issue of promoting youth leadership and
engagement in regional, continental and international education dialogue on
the gender equality goal in education, as well as exploring opportunities for
establishing strategic partnerships focused on promoting girls and women's
education in Africa. It was recommended that the next 25 years should be
based on a strategy of involving the participation of all ministers of education
irrespective of gender.
Within this Conference on Girls' Education in Africa, UNESCO hosted a
parallel session on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM) Education in Africa, with the objective of preparing a Roadmap for a
Regional Strategy on STEM Education in Africa. It was a fruitful sharing of
experiences among the African Union, the East African Community, the
African Academy of Sciences, as well as UN agencies, universities,
development agencies and the private sector.
On 23 August we celebrated the International Day for the Remembrance of
the Slave Trade and its abolition, paying tribute to all those who fought for
freedom against slavery. This point in history greatly impacted also Eastern
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Africa. For this, I warmly invite you to take a look at the UNESCO 8
Volumes on the General History of Africa, one of the major contributions to
the knowledge of Africa's history and historiography.
Next week the office will participate in a two-day workshop to map UNDAF
outcomes and outputs in Nairobi, Kenya, UNESCO will provide input to this
process in contributing towards the development of the next UNDAF (2018-
2022) in Kenya.
I wish you a productive week ahead!
Ann Therese Ndong-Jatta
Announcements
Horn of Africa crisis. The Call to Action for the Horn of Africa was released,
advocating to extend the right to education to all children around the
world, especially the most vulnerable and excluded.
You can find the Advocacy Letter on Education in Emergencies, here.
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The July Edition of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in
Nairobi, featured UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa in three
activities carried out by UNESCO in July, including the Technical and
Vocational Education Training systems for quality and employability (TVET)
regional workshop, as well as the Education for Sustainable Development and
Global Citizenship Education Technical workshop, and the work on
UNESCO in shaping a digital future by supporting the Kenya Internet
Governance Forum.
You can read the UNIC Newsletter here.
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First “Education Cannot Wait”-grant for UNESCO
UNESCO Regional Office for Nairobi was granted 63,000 USD from the
Education Cannot Wait fund for emergency-support in Madagascar. This is
the first time UNESCO benefits from this fund that was created at the World
Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul in May 2016, with the aim to increase the
education system's resilience to crises.
Events of the week
Consultation meeting with partners and donors in Djibouti on
the UNDAF 2018 to 2022
28 August 2017
Djibouti Ville, Djibouti
China-Africa Dialogue II
Theme "China's engagement with UNESCO to support Higher Education in
Africa through UNESCO Priority Africa Programme"
6 September 2017
UNESCO Headquarters, Paris-France Room II
Two-day Workshop to Map UNDAF Outcomes and Outputs and Plan
for the UNDAF
28 to 29 August 2017
Nairobi, Kenya
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Communication Focal Points Meeting for Eastern Africa
29 August 2017
Nairobi, Kenya
A consultative meeting with stakeholders to develop SIDA work plan on
HIV and Health Education 2018-2020. Meeting organized jointly by
Ministry of Education, UNESCO and Kenya National Commission for
UNESCO
31 August 2017
Nairobi, Kenya
Pre-validation meeting of the Rwanda Teacher Development Framework
29 to 31 August 2017
Kigali, Rwanda
Meeting of the sub-committee on Science & Technology for the
preparation of the National and International Workshop on Future
Earth Sciences
30 August 2017
Kigali, Rwanda
Data collection on MIL in 16 primary teachers training colleges
28 August to 18 September, 2017
Kigali, Rwanda
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Second roundtable discussions aimed at prevention, monitoring and
countering hate speech (Human rights nexus)
30 August 2017
South Sudan
Meetings
Strengthening Somalia Information and Communication Platforms for
peace and security
23 August 2017
Nairobi, Kenya
UNESCO met with the World Bank,
and with its partners UN Women
and UNHCR, to follow-up on the
development of a UN inter-agency
project aimed at upstreaming and
downstreaming interventions
that contribute to Strengthening
Information and Communication
in Somalia to promote peace and
public access to information for
the vulnerable populations , aligning with the Sustainable Development
Goals and according to the United Nations Trust Fund for human security
requirements (people-centered, comprehensive, context-specific, prevention-
oriented, protect and empower). Following the Human Security approach and
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the identification of the causes of insecurities on the ground, UNESCO and its
partners will agree on thematic areas of work and will lead the way forward.
UNESCO and Free Press discuss media freedom in Somalia
On 24 August 2017,
UNESCO discussed with
Free Press on the
interventions that the
organizations are
supporting in Somalia,
Puntland and Somaliland
during the last quarter of 2017 and upcoming projects and activities in 2018.
The interventions are in support of the implementation of the Somalia Media
Strategy 2016-2020 Strategic Media Development Goals. During the meeting,
UNESCO and Free Press discussed on how to further develop and implement
the media legal framework in Somalia, strengthen the capacity of media
operators, workers, institutions and stakeholders, develop public service ethos
in media, improve media security, as well as being part of the Somalia Media
Working Group.
Training of 80 teacher Educators on management and support of the
Leaner Management System
23 to 25 August 2017
Wakiso, Uganda
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From 23 to 25 August 2017, a 3-day face-
to-face training workshop for Teacher
Educators from all Teacher Training
Institutions (TTIs) in Uganda was
conducted at Shimoni Core PTC in
Wakiso, Uganda.
This training aimed at developing ICT skills for teacher educators, by
improving their skills to integrate ICT as a pedagogical tool in their teaching
and learning, thus enabling them to use modern education technology
practices. The hands-on training equipped teacher educators with skills on
how to use and manage courses and supported the Teacher Educator E-
Learning System (TEELS), a Moodle Learning Management System (LMS)
that is designed to Uganda's context.
The second phase of the training workshop will take place from 30 August to
1 September 2017. These blended training workshops will be followed by a
1-month, online training session, where participants from both phases will
interact with the facilitators and complete the rest of the course online.
Missions
Karalyn Monteil
Workshop on the Development of the African Union model law on the
protection of cultural heritage
27 to 30 August 2017
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Lilongwe, Malawi
Alice Ochanda
Cracking the Code: Girls’ education in STEM
28 to 30 August 2017
Bangkok, Thailand
Publications
Agenda 2063 African Union
The document is a strategic framework for
the socio-economic transformation of the
continent over the next 50 years. It builds
on, and seeks to accelerate the
implementation of past and existing
continental initiatives for growth and
sustainable development.
You can read about the Aspirations of
Africa here
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3rd meeting of the SDGs - Education 2030 Steering Committee
29-30 June 2017 New York, United States
Meeting Report
The Document reports on the activities of
the SDG- Education 2030 Steering
Committee, whose mandate is to provide
strategic guidance to Member States and
the education community, make
recommendations for catalytic action,
advocate for adequate financing and
monitor progress towards SDGs targets
through the UNESCO Institute for
Statistics and the Global Educational
Monitoring (GEM) Report. You can find
the report here.
Videos
Health Literacy and Behavioral Change
Project
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UN days & Public Holidays
International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its
abolition
23 August 2017
Eid Al Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice
2 September 2017
UN offices will be closed in several countries in the region, on Friday 1st
September 2017
Birthdays
Virginia Ntheketha Mumo
26 August 2017
Mika Odido
31 August 2017
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